The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

couldn’t get along there either. The next morning he called Sonny and said, “Come pick me
up, I want to turn myself in.”
On the morning of September 29, 1970, Joe walked into the Baltimore police headquar-
ters and calmly said, “I’m Joe Lacks. I’m wanted cause I killed Ivy.” Then he filled out this
form:
After that, Joe waited. He knew he was going to plead guilty—he just wanted to get on
with it. After five months awaiting trial in a cell, Joe wrote this letter to the criminal court judge:
Dear Sir or Your Honor,
In the most critical time on this earth is now on this atmosphere today of my missteak no
I’ll say wronge com prehendion of corruption that I’ve place on myself. A very miss lead prob-
lem that was not ment to be. Feel so frustration in making me obnoxious within me, Asking for
a (speedly trial) to Let me know what lays ahead in the future, I feel as thod I sure be castig-
ate or chastise for the wronge I’ve did, So I’m ready to get it over now with it.
Joe Lacks
(Speedly trial)
(Thank you)
(Your Honor)
Finally, on April 6, 1971—seven months after Ivy’s death—Joe stood in a courtroom and
pleaded guilty to murder in the second degree, with Sonny watching nearby. The judge
warned Joe repeatedly that a guilty plea meant waiving his right to a trial, his right to testify,
and his right to appeal her ruling. As the judge spoke, he said “yes ma’am” and “no ma’am.”
He told her the alcohol had made him do it and that he hadn’t meant to kill Ivy.
“I tried to hit on top of his shoulder, and he panicked and turned and caught it in the
chest,” Joe said. “I was trying to wound him so I wouldn’t let him hurt me. ... He told me he
was going to kill me that Saturday night me and him got into the argument. I just hope you
see I was trying to protect my life. I was not really wanting any trouble out of no one at all.”
But Ivy’s fourteen-year-old neighbor, who’d seen the whole thing, said Joe had walked
right up and stabbed Ivy in the chest, then tried to stab him again in the back as he staggered
away.
When Joe stepped from the stand, his court-appointed lawyer approached the judge to
make this final point:
The only thing I would add, Your Honor, is that I talked to his brother about the young
man, and the problem that he also had in the Army, is a problem that possibly got him into the
situation he is in Court for today. For some reason, somewhere in his life, he has gotten an in-
feriority complex. And it seems to be a sizable one. It seems that whenever he is confronted
by any individual, he sort of takes it rather aggressively, more so than the average individual